The Priest and the Mermaid
by Rune Silverstar
Summary: Myths, legends, fairy tales...stories that change with the telling. Here, thrice told is the story of Philip and Syrena, at the crossroads of their lives.


Title: The Priest and the Mermaid

Fandom: Pirates of the Caribbean - On Stranger Tides

Pairing: Philip / Syrena

Rating: PG?

Summary: Myths, legends, fairy tales...stories that change with the telling. Here, thrice told is the story of Philip and Syrena, at the crossroads of their lives.

~o~o~o~o~o~

**The Lovecraftian Horror Edition**

He was a man of God. Far from perfect - no man before the Lord's Grace could be - but Philip always tried his best to tread the path of righteousness. As his life's blood poured forth into the briny water and his sight began to dim, all he wanted was the peace of forgiveness from the wondrous if unnatural creature beside him.

Gently, he felt her hands upon his face. Faintly, her lips brushed his in a lover's touch. The chill of the ocean seemed distant as it closed all around him, and he had scarce the wits to wonder that he no longer fought for air.

But then, a prick of pain pulled him back from the distant numbness, back from the faint hints of that dark tunnel with the Light of Heaven at its end. His eyes opened to murky nothingness. Unseeing, he felt fangs tearing at his flesh. In torment, he screamed, but the sound did not carry. He would have fought, but he had no strength left.

After all, what would a creature not of God know of His Mercy?

~o~o~o~o~o~

**The Hans Christian Andersen Edition**

She was a creature born of Darkness. While the seed from Sons of Adam quickened the spawning of her kind, it was a base need taken by force, no matter of fin or of song. Syrena and her sisters had learned from the dawn of their lives of the treacherous illusion they lived, and how to close their heart against those prey they beguiled.

But yet, holding the young priest close to her body while she cut through the treacherous currents of the sea, her thoughts held nothing but the last words he had spoken to her. Her pride pricked that he had not spoken of love and promise - lust she knew how to answer. Her heretofore unstirred heart ached at the request asked that she alone could grant.

As if afraid that the man would slip away, the mermaid held him tighter, taking scant comfort at the slow heartbeat beneath her hands. Faintly, her other sense tingled with the distant heat of one of the Hidden Places of the sea floor. She did not know if the light of the man's God could reach the darkness of the place she approached, but she knew the Dark Powers that dwelt there could grant her fondest desire... if only for the price of a willing Soul.

Days later, fishermen on the coast of England found a young priest washed up on the beach, with no memory of the voyage that had obviously shipwrecked him. And when the sea breeze whispered past their ears, it seemed to them that the winds carried upon it a psalm of the Lord's Grace.

~o~o~o~o~o~

**The Happily Ever After Edition**

He had been a man of God. She had been a creature of Darkness. Their story had been but a footnote in the grand adventures of some of the greatest knaves of legend. And when the curtain fell, they were never heard of again.

On a small and inconspicuous island, far from the echoes of Whitecap Bay and distant from the reach of England's Crown, a strange family came to dwell among the aborigines. The man was often seen, pale as full moon and wiser than the shamans, spending many a day teaching the youngsters of the village the Mysteries of "Words". His woman was rarely seen, beautiful as the twilight, spending many a night singing haunting melodies that made wisemen and warriors alike shiver in the dark. And there were the children - a little boy with hair of summer's delight who loved to run at his father's heels, and a little girl of autumn's glory who was even more rarely glimpsed than her mother...

If a bird and a fish were to fall in love, where would they live? But if love was enough for the bird to bind its wings, and the fish to leave its tail, then surely there could be a place to hold them both.

~o~o~o~o~o~

Fin.


End file.
